Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The demographics survey for formerly religious people is up. If you once had religious beliefs, but don't any more, then take the survey! We're trying to figure out what influences people to move from religion to non-religion, because there's a surprising lack of actual data on this. And how can we help more people become atheists if we don't know what influences people to make this choice?

The movement needs your help to answer this question. The survey takes 10, max 15 minutes. With this data we'll be able to see what really makes people reconsider their religion and declare themselves an atheist (or humanist, or whatever). Most importantly, tell your friends about it! We're on Facebook too.

Would have been nice if they'd include all sexual orientations and not just include pedophilia in the other groups. I am heterosexual, so I put that. But would have preferred an option of putting pedophile/heterosexual.

Under "what kind of high school did you attend" I noticed there was no "homeschooled" option. I selected "private, religious" because this seemed like the closest matching response, but it seems like quite a lot of people who left religion would have the same educational background as I do.

Thanks to everyone for taking the survey and furthermore, taking the time to tell me how to improve it. I can't fix it as it is because then I would lose data, but future incarnations will certainly incorporate your suggestions. Really appreciate it!

And for you people outside the U.S. - sorry the the survey isn't for you. It's really focused on Americans, for several reasons, one of which is it's hard enough even for an American (me) to design a survey that covers all the options for other Americans, let alone for your country too. So I encourage you to do a survey for your own country, and feel free to steal the questions/format for this one. Just make sure you share your data! The whole reason for this is to know how to make more atheists.

Interestingly, all your excellent suggestions about this survey (read: what to include in future surveys) have exposed my own background! I'm a second generation atheist and multiple people have pointed out that religious education is absent from the list of options. Also, I'm from suburban Philadelphia, and homeschooling isn't so much a thing around there.

I'm glad so many people are giving me good feedback and I hope you sign up for the Facebook group so you can see when the next improved version comes out, and make sure we have better questions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/163908863812902/